⁷“I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You …’” ¹²Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!

Christian readers see references to the Son in Psalm 2 as pointing us to Jesus Christ, who we believe is the Son of God. The mind of Jewish readers, however, turns to King David and his God-appointed dynasty, with strong inferences concerning the coming Messiah, who would deliver the Jews from all their oppressors. These interpretations are not mutually exclusive but show the layers of communication God uses to speak to His people. But why call King David “the Son”?

The overriding theme of Psalm 2 is the exaltation of God and His anointed earthly ruler, described in monarchial imagery, with victory over those who dare rebel against God and His hand-picked representative. To the Jews, the Davidic dynasty fulfilled that role. A dynasty is defined as governance and authority passed down from father to child through succeeding generations. Today we can see this in the succession of monarchs from the so-called House of Windsor in Great Britain, with the current Queen Elizabeth II sitting on the throne (as of this writing).

Many ancient nations—most notably the Roman empire—treated their monarch as deity. Many Roman emperors enjoyed their installation by and adulation from the Roman populace on the level of godhood. Even as a recently as World War II, the emperor of Japan was considered divine.

Among the ancient Jews there was a keen sense of the Davidic king being divinely approved and having a relationship with God that was akin to a father-son connection. Indeed, God did appoint David and promised that David’s son, Solomon, would reign after him, as well as succeeding descendants (2 Sam. 7:12-16, 1 Chron. 17:11-14, 2 Chron. 6:16, Isaiah 9:7, also Ps. 89). Of course, monotheism (the doctrine that there is one and only one God) was entrenched in the Jewish religion and scriptures from the earliest times (see Deut. 6:5, Ex. 20:1-3, Isa. 42:8; 43:1-11). So, while not declaring that David or the Davidic dynasty was an incarnation of deity, the psalmist draws a close connection between the king and God and equates rebellion against the king of Israel as rebelling against God and what is presented in this psalm as His adopted son.

The NT, through the eyes of a post-resurrection-of-Christ lens, sees the implication and application to Jesus, the true Son of God, who was Himself incarnate deity. The message of the psalm remains true whether it is applied during the ancient kingdom time of Israel, the NT time of Christ, or the future time when God fulfills the consequences promised for rebellion. The warning stands to all people and all nations.

Notice in verses 1-2 the audaciousness of nations who dare to rebel against God. A few verses later, we see God’s scornful laughter and scoffing (vs. 4), which then turns to anger and fury (vs. 5). It is like God saying, “You have got to be kidding me! This is absolutely ridiculous, even despicable.”

The word “rebel” is a strong word, frequently used when a nation breaks away from the control of another nation. On a fundamental level, rebellion against God began in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve, in the midst of abundant blessing, refused to obey the one prohibition God laid out for them. They flatly disobeyed their Creator. We see this clearly in hindsight, for we can read about the consequences. But at the time, they had no life experience to inform their decision whether to obey or disobey, no prior trial and error to guide them through their first life decision. They could not look at each other and say with practiced wisdom, “Been there, done that—not a good idea to eat!”

But they had God’s word, the warning of what would happen if they ate the prohibited fruit. And they had the lie of Satan, which promised great things. They chose the lie of the creature, rather than the word of the Creator. Adam and Eve were incredibly foolish. Their decision cost them everything, and they gained nothing but the experiential knowledge of evil!

Mockers of God’s Word today would say that Adam and Eve gained the freedom to determine their own destiny—a concept that rank-and-file humanists embrace unashamedly. But God looks on in amazement at such a foolish arrogance. He who knows the end from the beginning, who sees the future just as certainly as He sees the past, who knows all things, having created all things, mockingly laughs at the utter stupidity.

World history shows the continual evils of collective disobedience to God, most notably in other nations’ reaction to the nation of Israel. In this psalm, their disobedience is exemplified in the war plans laid against “the Lord,” that is, Yahweh (notice the term “Lord” in small caps, which the English translators use to render the divine name of God). All the ancient wars, in a sense, were religious wars, in that they asserted that their might and strength came from their territorial gods. Victories were determined by which nation’s gods were greater.

Skeptical historians label Israel and its deity, Yahweh, as typical of such cultic thinking prevalent in that day. But in this psalm, we have the Judge of the universe revealing Himself as Israel’s God speaking. He is not just a territorial god, but is the One before whom all the earth will stand in judgment. The Bible casts human history as centered on Yahweh God’s interjection into His created world, through the specific people group composed of the descendants of one man, Abraham. This is initially spelled out:

Now the Lord said to Abram [Abraham], ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.’ (Gen. 12:1–3)

From Abraham, his son Isaac, grandson Jacob, and their descendants came the people collectively called Israel. God designed His plan for redeeming this fallen world through this people group, Israel, and ultimately through one particular descendant of Abraham, the one called Jesus, the Son of God. The allusion in this psalm becomes clear.

Yet even in Jesus’s time, the nation of Israel itself rebelled against God’s Son. After His crucifixion and well-attested resurrection, Jesus’ followers were censured for preaching about Jesus:

And when [the Jewish leaders had summoned [the apostles], they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. (Acts 4:18)

The writer of Acts records the response of the Christians; in their prayer they interpreted their persecution in terms of Psalm 2:

O Lord, it is You who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them, who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David Your servant, said, ‘Why did the [nations] rage, and the peoples devise futile things? ‘The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ.’ “For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel … (Acts 4:24–27)

The absurdity of rebellion against God now extended to those who crucified Jesus. While it is in vogue to say we are all guilty of crucifying Jesus because we all sinned (and that is true in itself), the early Christian who accepted Jesus as the Son of God made a notable point that the nation of Israel, who of all nations should have accepted Christ, rejected Him! How incredible is that?

God could have easily have resolved this problem by rejecting and destroying all that He created, but He choose a different plan, a plan of reconciliation. While a full interpretive treatment of this psalm is beyond this essay, we can assert from a trinitarian, NT viewpoint, two things we must do to find that reconciliation. First, we need to recognize that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (Rom. 1:4, Acts 13:32-33, Heb. 1:5, 5:5). Second, we need to re-orient our minds and hearts to worshiping Him (literally, the Hebrew is “to kiss”). We are called upon to be wholly devoted to the Son. The psalm ends: “How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!” The one who brings the angry consequences on those who continue to rebel against God, becomes the protection from that anger.

The apostle John records the words of Jesus, who put it this way: “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).

While this psalm contains a call to make a wise choice in submitting to God’s Son, we see the royal and godly authority of the Son described in full display. He is the ruler over all, and all must submit to Him or suffer the consequences. He is the final arbiter of our eternal destiny.

Lord Jesus, I praise You for revealing Yourself as our ultimate authority in life. I believe you are the Son of God, and I wholeheartedly worship and love You.